Tag Archives: anti-Semitism

January 27th marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The date, that of the liberation of Auschwitz, was chosen in 2005 by the United Nations to honor the memory of those who were slaughtered by the Nazis. It gives politicians all over the world the opportunity to give flowery, emotional speeches, pouring out affection toward the dear departed ones. Yes, it’s easy to love dead Jews. But living ones??! That’s another story altogether. And it doesn’t matter whether those Jews are in Israel or anywhere else. Hating them is back in vogue, seemingly everywhere.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day itself is now an excuse to vilify those dastardly Jews who refused to perish. Consider the following pearls of wisdom issued especially for the somber memorial:

• British politician, Lee Jasper of the Respect Party, posted on Facebook, “We are asked to remember that which Israel has forgotten, that religious and racial hatred is a sin against God.” He went on further to say, “Israel has failed to learn the lessons of its own tragic history having evolved into a racist oppressor.”

• Also in England, Liberal-Democrat MP David Ward just prior to International Holocaust Remembrance Day put on his website the following statement: “Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Even though he was reprimanded by his party, he replied, “I don’t feel bad about it in any way.” He also said his comments had received an “overwhelmingly positive” response from the public, with 80 unsolicited supportive emails, and just two from detractors.

• On Sunday, January 27, the very day of the International Holocaust Remembrance, The Sunday Times of London ran a vile cartoon by Gerald Scarfe entitled, Will Cementing Peace Continue? It featured PM Netanyahu with a scowl, an accentuated nose and a hunchback, reminiscent of Nazi caricatures of Jews. He was pictured building a wall made of bricks, blood and Palestinian body parts. This was a variation of the classic Jewish blood libel in which Jews through the centuries were accused of using the blood of young Christian boys to make their Passover matzah. Today many Arabs and Muslim extremists make the same accusations against us except that we’re now using young Arab boys.

• Mahmoud Abbas, our supposed peace partner, said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen, a Beirut TV station, “I challenge anyone to deny the relationship between Zionism and Nazism before WWII.” This confirming that he still believes what he wrote in his 1984 book, The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism: “a partnership was established between Hitler’s Nazis and the leadership of the Zionist movement” in which the Zionists gave “permission to every racist in the world, led by Hitler and the Nazis, to treat Jews as they wish, so long as it guarantees immigration to Palestine.”

Mr. Abbas’ PA-TV continues to spew out hate toward Jews (otherwise known as the descendants of apes and pigs) and yet none of this is reported in the mainstream media or is challenged by the US State Department or the Obama White House. Indeed, in spite of all this, the United States has made it clear that they are officially waiting for an Israeli coalition to form, so that negotiations can resume. The two-state solution cannot wait!

Are the above isolated incidents or are we witnessing a worldwide phenomenon?

The Israeli Ministry of Information and Diaspora has prepared a disturbing report on anti-Semitic trends in 2012 which stated that there was “an alarming rise in the number of terrorist attacks and attempted attacks against Jewish targets and an escalation in violent incidents against Jews throughout the world.” The perpetrators?… “primarily… groups which identify with radical Islam and the extreme right.” At the same time, the report found, there has also been an increase in the number of street attacks and incidents of verbal and physical violence against Jews, in Europe as well as in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

The conclusion of the matter in my opinion is this: those who hate God hate Jews, even if it’s disguised as antipathy toward Israel. It doesn’t matter whether the haters call themselves secular, progressive or “religious.” Yes, one can be religious and not know or love God Himself. Even worse, one can be a worshiper of a “deity” who in reality is a demon, even Satan himself, and whose religion is falsely praised as a “religion of peace.”

The spiritual battle lines are being drawn between light and darkness and it would behoove each of us to make sure he/she is on the right side of history and of eternity.

Allow me to introduce you to the fine art of covering one’s tuchus (Yiddish for “posterior”). Here’s how it works. A public figure makes outrageous or hateful comments and when it looks like there may be some kind of consequence for his/her behavior, out comes the cover.

A couple of current favorites: it was a poor choice of words; my comment was taken out of context. Does it work? Depends. In the eyes of the mainstream media and those who don’t care about the issue, absolutely yes! The offender is automatically absolved of all his past sins. He’s a changed man who is a staunch moderate now. Uh-huh!

However for those who care or who have the courage to look a little more closely, the cover-ups are about as effective as those stupid hospital examination gowns with the split up the back. You do your best to keep them closed to guard your privacy, but any wrong move and they fly open and you’re horrified. Oh well, we all knew what was under there anyway. And we should know what’s under the façade of several dignitaries we’re being pushed to embrace these days.

First is President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt. Let’s hear what he has said publicly as recently as 2010:

January 10, 2010Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred toward those zionists and Jews and all those who support them. They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.

March 20, 2010The Zionists have no right to the land of Palestine. There is no place for them on the land of Palestine. What they took before 1947-8 constitutes plundering, and what they are doing now is a continuation of this plundering. By no means do we recognize their Green Line. The land of Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, not to the Zionists.

September 23, 2010No reasonable person can expect any progress on this track. Either [you accept] the Zionists and everything they want, or else it is war. This is what these occupiers of the land of Palestine know – these blood-suckers, who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs.

I would venture to say that the meaning is clear. The guy simply hates Jews and refuses to recognize the state of Israel, no matter which borders we talk about. But wait! Morsi just told a delegation of U.S. senators visiting Cairo on Wednesday that his remarks needed to be put “in the context in which they were said.”What context? Israeli “aggression”of course, against the poor innocent Palestinians in Gaza. As usual, it’s the Jews’ fault. We somehow even managed to be responsible for the constant barrage of Hamas rockets raining down on Israeli citizens over the course of many years. Those babies and kindergarten kids aren’t really civilians, you know; they’ll grow up to become soldiers and that makes them legitimate targets.

Evidently the “out of context” justification placated the Senators sufficiently so the delegation will still push for an additional $480 million in assistance to help Egypt’s ailing economy. Magically Mr. Morsi has morphed into a dignified statesman, worthy of U.S. assistance. He’ll most likely be getting tanks and planes, too, to fight off those “descendants of apes and pigs.”

Then there’s Chuck Hagel, nominated on January 7th to be President Obama’s Secretary of Defense. Seems Mr. Hagel has a serious Jewish problem.

• October, 2000 – while Israel was under unrelenting attack, Hagel was one of only 4 Senators who refused to sign a Senate letter in support of Israel.

• November, 2001 – Hagel was one of only 11 Senators who refused to sign a letter urging President Bush not to meet with terror chieftain Arafat until he ended terror activity against Israel.

• June, 2004 – Hagel refused to sign a letter urging President Bush to highlight Iran’s nuclear program at the G-8 summit.

• December, 2005 – Hagel refused to sign a letter to President Bush to pressure the Palestinian Authority to ban terrorist groups from participating in Palestinian legislative elections.

• August, 2006 – Hagel was one of only twelve U.S. Senators who failed to sign a bipartisan letter calling on the European Union to add Hezbollah to its list of terrorist organizations.

• Perhaps the most egregious of Hagel’s actions was his 2006 interview with Aaron David Miller where he’s quoted as saying, “The political reality is … that the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.”

• Hagel also serves as Chairman of the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy blog. In mid-December the Atlantic Council published a front page article titled “Israel’s Apartheid Policy.” While Mr. Hagel only serves on the Board of Directors and is not involved in writing the articles, labeling Israel’s policy as apartheid borders on anti-Semitism. It is both false and disingenuous but no apology or retraction was offered.

Four days after Hagel was nominated (Jan. 11), Charles Schumer, the third most senior Senate Democratic leader expressed reservations and said it would be hard for him to support the nominee. Shortly after, Hagel sent a letter of apology to Senator Barbara Boxer calling his statement about the Jewish Lobby “a very poor choice of words.” What about everything else? And notice he didn’t actually apologize for anything.

The tepid excuse and a personal meeting with Hagel were enough to mollify Senator Schumer and on January 15th he announced that he would not only vote for Hagel to be confirmed as Secretary of Defense, but would urge his colleagues to do likewise.

The “My comments were taken out of context” and “a poor choice of words” excuses are only effective for those who choose not to see. Unfortunately for us, the intelligentsia, so-called “experts” and “important people” are among the willfully blind. “We the people” must dig for the truth ourselves.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

Former President Ronald Reagan famously quipped, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” The wisdom of his words has been proved over and over again domestically as we have seen government agencies turn small problems into big ones and create catastrophes where there were none previously, all at taxpayer expense, of course. Not content with domestic bumbling, our leaders are turning their attention to fixing the world and especially the Middle East…(God help us!!)

The Obama administration is delighted with the progress of “democracy” in Egypt and is intent on encouraging the process. The fact that the two major Egyptian Islamist parties have captured 62% of the latest voting doesn’t seem to worry the optimists in Washington. Didn’t you know that the Muslim Brotherhood is now a kinder, more gentle, moderate organization (secular, too!) Funny thing is that the so-called “moderate organization” has never repudiated its founding charter which says, “Allah is our objective, the Koran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our way, and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.” These are reasonable, tolerant folks with whom US negotiators can certainly hammer out a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and beyond. As I reported last week,

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi

“The Obama administration has turned to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading jurist, to mediate secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban.” This is largely “untapped talent” that the US government can utilize to fix the world!

There does seem to be one glitch in this utopian vision – and that is Israel. Those stubborn Jews just don’t seem to be willing to commit national suicide, and that’s a real problem. President Obama in May, 2011, called for Israel to undertake a “full and phased withdrawal of Israeli forces” from “occupied Palestinian lands” to what he termed “borders based on 1967 lines” – the 1949 armistice lines. Israel’s former Foreign Minister and UN ambassador Abba Eban, in 1967, referred to those lines as the “Auschwitz borders.” The country would, at its most populous places, be only nine miles wide. In making this supposedly helpful demand, the President failed to honor U.S. commitments made to Israel by George W. Bush in 2004, commitments which were overwhelmingly supported by both Houses of Congress.

But Bush was an “evil war-monger” and the current resident of the White House is intent on resetting the parameters of our relationship with the Muslim world (can you say dhimmitude?). Therefore we must overlook small foibles of the Palestinians – like the refusal of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, their glorification of murderous terrorists as national heroes, their attempted unity deal with Hamas, etc. And, in order to fix the Middle East, we must force Israel to sit down at the negotiating table with a bunch of savages who want to wipe them out and sign a “peace agreement” which won’t be worth the paper on which it’s written.

Speaking of peace agreements, the new Egyptian government has threatened to cancel the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of March 26, 1979. This was a land for peace deal in which Israel gave up the Sinai in exchange for peace, albeit a cold peace at best, with Egypt. Caroline Glick, in her latest blog, The Land-For-Peace Hoax, asks the question,“will the US act in accordance with its role as guarantor of the peace and demand that the new Egyptian government give Sinai back to Israel?… if the Obama administration or whatever administration is in power when Egypt abrogates the treaty does not issue such a demand, and stand behind it, and if the EU does not support the demand, the entire concept of land-for-peace will be exposed as a hoax.”

Of course it’s a hoax; it was never intended to be anything else. And the chances of real concrete assistance from the US and the rest of the Western world as suggested in Ms. Glick’s article, are pretty remote. If current attitudes toward us don’t change, when we in Israel hear the words, “We’re from the United States government and we’re here to help!” we’d be wise to run in the other direction as fast as we can go!

These words, written in 1868 by Rector Phillips Brooks of Philadelphia, have etched into our collective imagination a pastoral scene of harmony and tranquility. Angels proclaiming,…” peace, good will toward men,” shepherds watching over their flocks, the innocent babe in the manger… While that description might have fit the town of Bethlehem in the days of the birth of the Messiah, it is far from the case now. In fact, the village has morphed into an ugly concrete jungle, full of hatred and violence, especially toward Jews and Christians. The reason? Islam!

Once Christians made up more than 85 per cent of the population of Bethlehem. Yet under Jordanian rule (1948-1967) and under the Palestinians (1995-present) that figure decreased to just 12 per cent of the 60,000 inhabitants. Isn’t it interesting that when the hated Israeli “occupation” was in control of Bethlehem from 1967-1995, the Christian population remained stable and Christians predominated in local governance? What’s the difference? Under Muslim hegemony Christians and other minorities live in fear – for good reason! If they don’t behave as good dhimmis there is a heavy price to pay – maybe their heads.

An example of this phenomenon is Victor Batarseh, Christian mayor of Bethlehem. Forget making any mention of the plight of the Christians of his city in his annual Christmas address. Instead he towed the party line, calling for a boycott of Israel in order to bring them back to the negotiating table with the Palestinian Authority. Obviously there could be no allusion to the fact that Israel is the only place in the Middle East where the Christian population has grown over the last 60 years, from 40,000 in 1948 when Israel was founded to 155,000 today.

We can understand Mayor Batarseh’s unwillingness to confront the issue of Muslim persecution of Christians. He has a lot to lose. But mainstream media has knowingly been complicit in the cover-up. In the rare reports on Muslim-on-Christian violence, the accounts are framed as “ethnic clashes,” making it sound as if there is some kind of moral equivalency in the bloodletting. There is none! The fact is that whenever (throughout the history of Islam) and wherever Muslims become a majority, non-Muslims are severely persecuted.

Raymond Ibrahim, a widely published author on Islam, and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum, puts out a monthly report of Muslim Persecutions of Christians. This is definitely not light reading, but we ignore this information at our own risk. Leaders of western nations are, tragically, turning a blind eye to the danger: here and here.

So while multitudes around the world are celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace, many of His followers languish in prison, are being tortured or are fleeing for their lives – if they can find a place to go, that is. The silence of the media, academia and even liberal “Christianity” is deafening. Let’s not be silent as the islamic jihad both by violent means and by stealth moves to overthrow the world.

On Tuesday evening we light the first of eight candles, ushering in Hanukkah – the Feast of Dedication. The holiday commemorates the re-dedication of the holy Temple in Jerusalem after the miraculous victory of a small band of faithful Jewish men over the Greek Seleucid armies in 165 B.C.E.

In 168 B.C.E. the Jewish Temple had been seized by Syrian-Greek soldiers and dedicated to the worship of the god Zeus. While this upset the Jewish people, many were afraid to fight back for fear of reprisals. Then in 167 B.C.E. the Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus Epiphanes IV made the observance of Judaism an offense punishable by death. He also ordered all Jews to worship Greek gods. When in the town of Modi’in Greek soldiers forcibly gathered the Jewish people and told them to bow down to an idol and then eat the flesh of a pig, Mattathias, a priest, and his five sons rebelled and killed all the soldiers. After fleeing to the mountains they were joined by other Jewish people and the Maccabees, as they became known, brought about a great victory for the Jewish people against overwhelming odds.

The struggle that took place back then has repeated itself over and over again. The Jewish people in the time of the Maccabees had gradually been assimilating into the Greek culture. Judaism for these “enlightened” folks meant no more to them than it does to so many of us in the Western world today. Forget spirituality or truth – we have symbolism, social justice and, of course, a gastronomical experience. Because of the disconnect with Judaism and Israel, a majority of us are totally clueless when it comes to defending Israel against Arab rewriting of history. Sadly, many Jewish young people have embraced leftist ideology and blame the world’s problems on Israel.

Daniel Greenfield in his blog entitled, “A Holiday of Resistance”, challenges Jewish complacency by stating, “The Maccabees fought to resist having their culture and their religion replaced with just that kind of empty hedonism and self-worship. They fought because they believed they had something worth fighting for. Not for their possessions, but for their traditions, their families and their G-d. The celebration of Chanukah is not just how we remember them, but how we remember that we are called upon to keep their watch. To take up their banner and carry their sword.” In other words, if we view our scriptures and our rich history as nothing more than nice stories and good food, how will we have the strength and courage to defend our right to the land of Israel?

At the first night’s candle lighting ceremony last year at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Knesset Speaker, Reuven Rivlin (Likud), said, “Hebron was the birthplace of the Kingdom of Israel, and on Hanukkah independence was returned to Israel. Hebron was the basis of our right to the Land of Israel, as a moral right that has no superior, and the right of ownership that cannot be questioned; it was our right then and it is our right today.” Rivlin went on to say regarding Hanukkah, “We did not take a foreign land, nor the property of strangers to us, but rather the Land of our forefathers which had been conquered in the past by enemies.” He then challenged the people, “Will we be able to stand by that today as well?”

In the biblical book of Daniel, written several hundred years before the fact, there is a detailed prophecy about the character and deeds of the Maccabees:

Those who do wickedly against the covenant he (Antiochus Epiphanes) shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. (Daniel 11:32)

The Hanukkah struggle continues today against overwhelming odds. But the same God who brought a miraculous victory for our people almost 2200 years ago is still able to do the same. The question is, will we be the people who know their God, who will be strong and carry out great exploits?

Like many of you, I was raised in a liberal Jewish home in America where I was taught – or rather absorbed from the atmosphere around me – two supposedly immutable facts. First, that Islam is one of the three great monotheistic religions. Second, that the Western world in general and the United States in particular have become safe havens for Jews. Never again will there be danger of a holocaust; the countries of the “enlightened” West are much too advanced for barbarity like that to raise its ugly head again. I’ll deal with the “Islam as a great monotheistic religion” issue in a future post, but today I want to tear away the façade of “the West as a sanctuary.”

It seems that almost every “progressive” still idolizes Europe and wishes to remake America in its mold. European culture as seen through their eyes is so marvelously civilized as opposed to American garishness; the gentleman vs. the cowboy. How could ancient Jew-hatred rear its ugly head in such a multi-cultural paradise?

Sweden, once an idyllic land of lovely landscapes and peaceful, crime-free towns has become the become the rape capital of the world. Why? Massive Muslim immigration! For the same reason Swedish Jews have begun running for their lives, realizing that the government in which they trusted is unable or unwilling to protect them. Evidently Muslim Jew-hatred has emboldened the home grown variety of haters to express themselves openly without fear of punishment.

Norway, known for its breathtaking fjords, northern lights and midnight sun is no longer the home of the brave Vikings. Forget bravery and standing up for their own values. It’s so passé to think that one’s own country or values are exceptional in today’s world. And so, Norway has, for all intents and purposes, surrendered to the Islamist tyranny that arrived on its shores with Muslim immigration. Rather than assimilate into Norwegian society and culture, these new-comers aspire to take over – Allah’s kingdom must rule over all the earth! And the Jews are fleeing.

The “Emerald Green Isle” is no longer the innocent home of leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. Ireland is now infamous as the “most hostile country in Europe.” Not a comfortable place for Jews…
All of Europe is sliding toward that same precipice, from which I fear there is no return, and European Jews need to have their suitcases packed and not convince themselves that everything will be alright.

What about the U.S.? For now it’s still a somewhat safe haven for Jews, but that status is getting wobbly and it’s by no means guaranteed to remain as such into the foreseeable future.

Our president has chosen as his best international friend an unabashed Islamist who hates both Israel and the U.S.
Islamists are working overtime to convince the American public, whom they see as good-natured idiots, that Islam isn’t so bad after all. A new TV show endeavors to present Muslims as regular folks who just want to make a living and be happy, like you or me. Violence? Jihad? We must be imagining things about the “religion of peace.”

Finally, Muslims understand rightly that the last bastion of support for Israel and the Jewish people is the believing church, particularly in the U.S. By portraying Palestinians as the oppressed under-dogs and the Israelis as oppressors, “moderate” Muslim groups are attempting to peel off support from Christians. And to a certain extent they’re succeeding. Only the groups whose roots are deeply in the Scriptures, who love the God of Israel and who are willing to be stigmatized as ignorant, heartless buffoons will be unmoved by these appeals.

This is a challenge for those of you who call yourselves “Christians.” Where will you stand when the going gets rough (and make no mistake about it, it will!)? And for my Jewish readers – are you willing to recognize and appreciate our friends and not ascribe ulterior motives to them? These brave souls stand with us because of a relationship with our God, something all of us might want to emulate.

The year is approximately 540 BCE. Belshazzar, king of the great Babylonian Empire is hosting an opulent feast for 1000 of his lords. Oriental monarchs frequently indulged in extravaganzas like this one with the sole purpose of showing off their wealth, their power, their wives or anything else they could think of to make others think they were the greatest human beings (maybe even bordering on the divine) to ever walk the earth. But Belshazzar made two fatal mistakes. First, he was so mesmerized by the myth he had created about himself that he was oblivious to the storm that was brewing around him. Even worse – he messed with the God of Israel. He and his entourage decided it would be a really cool thing to bring out the gold cups and other vessels that had been looted from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and use them to toast the power of the king and the greatness of his pagan gods. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote what was, to all those assembled in the hall, an unintelligible message. The mood in the room changed from drunken festivity to utter terror. The only one able to interpret the message was the prophet Daniel. This is what it said…

God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting Your kingdom has been divided… (Dan. 5:26-28)

That very night the king was assassinated and his kingdom was handed over to others.

Is the handwriting on the wall of our world today? Are our leaders, like King Belshazzar, blithely going along, too enchanted by the fantasies of their own making to pay attention to the looming catastrophe that may not be as far in the future as many of them hope? More direly – are more and more people and nations messing with the God of Israel? Scripture warns, he who touches you (Israel and the Jewish people) touches the apple of His (God’s) eye. (Zech. 2:8)

• Is a worldwide cataclysm brewing in Iran? A report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows strong, “credible” evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon. Rather than being a shock, this was simply confirmation of facts that have been known but ignored or withheld for a long time. According to Caroline Glick, “Since Iran’s nuclear weapons program was first revealed to the public in 2004, Israel has provided in-depth intelligence information proving Iran’s malign intentions to the likes of Sarkozy, Obama and the UN.”

Won’t sanctions and diplomacy work? NO! First of all, we’re not dealing with rational, albeit evil, political leaders. The Iranian mullahs and their puppet, Ahmadinejad, are demonically-driven, fanatical theocrats whose ambition is to bring about the apocalypse so that the long-awaited 12th imam will come to earth. No big deal if most of their nation perishes in the process!! And now it seems that they have China on their side. According to Fox News, “The Chinese-Iranian relationship has, in fact, been deepening over the last few years.”

So what are Israel’s options? Will she “go it alone” against Iran in what would be a very risky mission? Many feel such actions would precipitate a regional war involving Hezbollah and Hamas along with Iran. Analysts predict that in the event of such a war, the cost of a barrel of oil could dramatically rise to $175 – $200 a barrel. This would not only inflame passions against Israel but against the Jewish people as a whole. It doesn’t take much to arouse Jew-hatred these days. Remember Israel’s Operation Cast Lead offensive in December 2008/January 2009? What was a totally justifiable action meant to protect innocent civilians in the south of the country from incessant rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza became an excuse for virulent world-wide demonstrations against the “hateful Jews”. For an excellent power point of the anti-Semitic repercussions of Cast Lead, click here and then click on General (in the right hand column and then click on January 2009 – In the wake of Operation Cast Lead). Then there’s this Youtube video of a female Hamas sympathizer in Fort Lauderdale screaming at Jewish people “go back to the oven.”

• Is the world poking God in the eye by their treatment of Israel and its leaders? No one claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is any kind of a prophet or a holy man – but he is the representative of the nation, and when he is the recipient of undeserved antagonism it’s a symptom of a deeper problem. While we hear empty rhetoric claiming, “Israel remains our important partner and key strategic ally,” the truth comes out from behind closed doors. The following exchange took place during a break at the G20 summit in Cannes, France. Presidents Sarkozy and Obama thought the mics were turned off and were having a confidential little chat about Bibi.

Sarkozy: “I can’t stand to see him any more, he’s a liar.”
Obama: “You are fed up with him, but me, I have to deal with him every day.”
The White House refused to confirm or deny the exchange between the two.

Far from being an aberration, the above unscripted comment is part of a continual pattern of disrespect from President Obama. When Prime Minister Netanyahu came to the White House in March 2010, he was given third-world treatment. Obama followed that up at various times by outrageous demands. Israel should cease all construction in Judea and Samaria and in East Jerusalem, even on land that is not being contested. And Israel should begin discussions with the PA based on a return to the pre-1967 borders, also known as the “Auschwitz Borders.” Obviously this is the most anti-Israel president the U.S. has ever had!

• Is the handwriting on the wall in the U.S.? Not yet to the extent that it is in Europe but universities, the institutions that are training the next generation of national leaders, reek with Jew-hatred.

On October 28 at Kent State University, Professor Julio Pino felt obligated to exercise his First Amendment right by shouting out “Death to Israel” at a lecture given by guest speaker, Ishmael Khaldi, a former Israeli consul official who is a Bedouin. Four days earlier Khaldi appeared at the University of Michigan where approximately 60 students walked out on his message. One of the leaders of the protest, Bilal Baydoun, was quoted in the Arab American News, “our goal is to preventsomeone like this from even arriving on campus in the first place and we feel confident that we will be able to accomplish this as we continue to spread awareness.” Free speech and free exchange of ideas on the university campus have become a thing of the past as Arab petro dollars increasingly flow in to fund these bastions of learning and as hard core leftists serve in tenured positions of power.

Pro-Islamic speakers can spout their venom with impunity at campus venues but even questions from the audience are carefully screened. When Gail Rubin, co-chair of the University of California Davis chapter of StandwithUs, a pro-Israel organization, attempted to challenge lecturer Professor Gilbert Achcar’s skewed opinion that the Grand Mufti’s (Haj Amin al-Husseini) anti-Semitism had only a minimal impact on both Jews and Arabs, two professors angrily told her“the questions were insulting and to either stop or leave the room.” As she described it, “So much for free speech and scholarly discourse in academia.”

• Incitement eventually leads to violence. This past Friday (November 11) residents of Flatbush, Brooklyn were awakened to find that three cars had been torched and the area had been defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti.

The big danger in the western world is that it’s easy to become so comfortable or so involved in our daily lives that we simply pass everything off thinking things have to get better – it’ll all go away eventually. But maybe it won’t.

As tens of thousands of demonstrators march through the streets of Europe, the chants are modified but the message remains substantially intact: ‘Hamas, Hamas, Hamas — Jews to the Gas’. Or, more simply: ‘Death to the Jews’. Many European Jews, even well-established, affluent Jews, have been checking the suitcasethey keep packed under the bed. They have been here before and many are (albeit reluctantly) reading the writing on the wall.

The writing on the wall may be a little more faint in the U.S., but perhaps it’s time we begin reading it.

I’d like to begin today with a story about one of my favorite biblical heroes – Elijah the prophet (the same guy for whom we set a place at the Passover seder and for whom we open the door while singing “Eliyahu HaNavi” – “Elijah the Prophet”). He may be considered a hero today but in his own time he wasn’t very popular. The political leaders hated him; the king called him THE trouble-maker of Israel. The queen wanted him dead. Religious leaders despised him because he dared to tell the truth and rebuke them for what they were doing wrong – like worshiping the gods of the surrounding pagan peoples and engaging in their lascivious behavior. In short, he refused to follow or condone the politically correct philosophy of the day.

On top of that, he looked like a wild man – hairy, dressed in what would be considered rags – like something just blown in off the desert. In today’s jargon Elijah was a right-wing nut job. Scripture records his miraculous victory over hundreds of pagan (false) prophets. You can read the entire account here.

But Elijah felt alone, threatened, discouraged and ran away into the desert. There he plopped himself under a bush, complained to God that even though he himself had been very zealous he was the only one left standing for the truth – so why bother living any more? The world was going to hell quickly…why not just forget about it, die and let them go along on their merry way. God didn’t put up with his whining. First of all, he was wrong: he wasn’t alone. God had 7,000 people who were standing with him against the forces of evil. That’s not a lot in a whole nation, but it’s something. Secondly, Elijah wasn’t ready for retirement. God basically told him to get up off his tuchus (rear end) and continue the work he was supposed to do.

Sometimes we who stand with Israel and the Jewish people may feel isolated in an increasingly hostile world. It’s politically correct now to be pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist (read “anti-Jew”); just ask the UN, EU, the Obama administration, Arab nations, leftist NGO’s, campus and church BDS groups (boycott, divestment, sanctions), Hollywood celebrities, mainstream media, etc., etc. Those who take the opposite view and dare to express it are often labeled right-wing nut jobs, ignorant, trouble-makers, even terrorists…sound familiar? Because of extreme media bias, these brave souls even have difficulty getting their message out without having it twisted. It’s up to you and me not to allow them to be “voices crying in the wilderness”.

Thanks to conservative talk radio, blogs and newsletters like mine (what a shameless plug!) we can unearth the truth – it frequently takes a lot of digging – and pass it around to others. Here are a couple of youtube videos I’ve included in the past: Michele Bachmann and Allen West sharing their views on Israel. If you haven’t already done so, please watch them. These people aren’t just speaking to woo Jewish voters or Jewish donations to their campaigns. They really mean what they say and have backed it up with action regardless of political cost.
Then there’s Glenn Beck. Yes, I know he’s a Mormon. Yes, I know that he may have some odd ideas about various and assorted topics. But the reason he’s been more vilified in the mainstream media than almost anyone else is his uncompromising stand for Israel.

On Tuesday, July 19, Glenn Beck gave the keynote address in Washington, DC at the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) convention. Here’s a video highlights of his speech (7:54) – inspiring and moving, a must-see! For the the full speech (42:32) click here. Despite theological differences I’m thankful for men like him, Pastor John Hagee and others associated with CUFI.

Then there’s you and me, average folks who aren’t making speeches or Youtube videos. How can we get up off our collective tuchus and do something positive? Here are three simple things:

1. Forward my blog – another shameless plug.

2. Do some research on your own and pass your findings on to others. Remember that your friends won’t find this info on the evening news and so they may be totally unaware of the truth unless you inform them. Of course, be sure to check out the veracity of your sources first so that even if people accuse you of being a wild-eyed nut case, you won’t be. In my blog, The Media’s Assault on Israel, I listed reliable resources that I myself use.

3. Be proactive! It is inexcusable to say I don’t have the time or my opinion doesn’t matter! Emails to newspapers, congressmen, senators, companies and local businesses can and do make a difference. When the city of Seattle, WA, agreed to allow public bus ads which read, “Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work”, accompanied by huge, pathetic-looking pictures of “poor oppressed Palestinians”, I and apparently thousands of others immediately fired off emails to Seattle city commissioners. Because of pressure applied from so many concerned citizens, the ad campaign was cancelled.

So let’s not waste time on hand-wringing and kvetching (complaining). Let’s dust ourselves off like Elijah did and let’s be encouraged – we’re not alone!

Like an out-of-control cancer, Jew-hatred is insidiously spreading its tentacles around the world. It’s rearing its ugly head in every country and unashamedly showing itself, frequently disguised as self-righteous anti-Zionism, in every kind of venue imaginable.

The tens of thousands of articles, books and blogs that have been written on anti-Semitism (just a watered-down name for Jew-hatred) haven’t touched the heart of the issue. All the well-intentioned attempts at identifying the roots of the problem, outlining its history and suggesting solutions have done virtually nothing. The beast continues to grow, even, sorry to say, infecting many Jewish people.
C’mon, you might say, you’re just being paranoid – or sensationalist – or you’re looking under every rock for signs of Jew-hatred. I wish that were the case. But this week, as I went to my usual sources, as the title of Dr. Jonathan Spyer’s article says, …Jew Hatred is on Full Display.

How is it being displayed?

• Number of anti-Semitic incidents
Is Jew Hatred really on the rise? According to a posting on CNN.com, a report by the US State Department says the answer is definitely YES – and on a world-wide scale! The report details physical acts of anti-Semitism, such as attacks, property damage, and cemetery desecration. It also lists manifestations such as conspiracy theories concerning Jews, Holocaust denial, anti-Zionism and the demonization of Israel. “Over much of the past decade, U.S. embassies worldwide have noted an increase in anti-Semitic incidents, such as attacks on Jewish people, property, community institutions, and religious facilities.”

I recommend a weekly check of the CFCA website (The Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism) at http://antisemitism.org.il/list/1. It is a valuable tool for those who want to grasp the scope of Jew-hatred throughout the world. Sadly many Jewish people, especially in the US, will pay very little attention to things like that until the monster touches their own personal lives – and by then it may be too late to do anything about it. In my newsletter I have included four examples from the above website coming out of Switzerland, Australia, Mexico and the United States.

• Intensity of anti-Semitism
Prior to the United Nations Durban II anti-racism conference in April, 2009, the European Jewish Congress and Tel Aviv University jointly released new survey findings regarding worldwide anti-Semitism. The report brought out two new phenomena:

1. The Operation Cast Lead effect – “after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead against the murderous Hamas terrorist organization, 250 anti-Semitic incidents of all types were counted (in January, 2009), compared to 35 during the same month in 2008. An estimated 1,000 incidents occurred in January 2009 around the world, including nearly 90 violent cases – three times more than in January 2008.”

From this we can conclude that any legitimate action that Israel may take to defend herself will be met by vicious outbreaks of hate and violence.

2. Equating Nazism with Israel – The report states that “anti-Semitic expressions evident at the beginning of 2009 were not classic stereotyping of Jews and Israelis, but rather abuse of the Holocaust as a political tool against Israel. The analogy of Israelis/Zionists/Jewish supporters of Israel with Nazis became almost an axiom.”

What is really being said is that just as Nazism has no right to exist, neither does Israel. An apartheid state has no legitimate right to exist either, and so the same people who call Israelis Nazis have branded Israel an apartheid state. Who cares that nothing could be further from the truth? It’s got a certain ring to it that appeals to activists who are looking for a cause – poor Palestinian under-dogs, starving children, etc., etc. And that’s what sucks in clueless Liberal Jews…you gotta feel good…never mind that what you’re doing may not actually be right or good (in their mind-set there’s no right and wrong anyway and there’s no such thing as an enemy; the “enemy” is just some poor schlemiel whom we haven’t yet “reached out” to enough).

• New sources of anti-Semitism
Because of technology, the internet and social networking, we are seeing anti-Semitism becoming more innovative. This weekend we were introduced to a new form of anti-Israel activity – the Air Flotilla (also called Flightilla and Flytilla). Pro-Palestinian “activists” from various countries including the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands planned to arrive at Ben-Gurion airport and make a ruckus to embarrass Israel. At least we didn’t need Paul Revere to warn us: “one if by land, two if by sea, three if by air”? No, the warning came from Israeli Intelligence. Many of the leftists were intercepted and sent packing before they could even board their Israel bound flights. Those who made it on their flights were met by a “greeting committee” on arrival at Ben Gurion and after being interrogated most were sent home.

Another positive note – the Gaza Flotilla (by sea) seems to have fizzled. Thanks to the government of Greece, the ships that docked in Greek ports were forbidden to continue on to Gaza and many of the provocateurs returned to their respective countries, including the 50 activists on the US Audacity of Hope.

Lest you be left in a state of doom and gloom, I’d like to end on a note of encouragement. This is the end of the story – and those who attend synagogue sing it every Shabbat morning, usually not really thinking about the words. Think about them – because this is reality!

והיה יהוה למלך על כל הארץ ביום ההוא יהיה יהוה אחד ושמו אחד

And the LORD (the God of Israel) shall be King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
“The LORD is one,”
And His name one.
Zechariah 14:9

“For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat (meaning “God judges”);
And I will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land.” (Joel 3:1,2)

The prophet Joel describes a time in history, for him personally still far in the future. At that time, after God has brought His people Israel back to their own land, He Himself gathers all the nations against them – for the purpose of judgment, judgment for having scattered and persecuted the Jewish people and for having divided up “My land”. The land of Israel belongs to God…woe to those who mess with it!

Are we living in those days and at that time?

Maybe, although we have to be careful not to get dogmatic and start setting “prophetic” dates like some American preachers who at this point can remain nameless. However, we can and should examine trends to see where they’re leading.

All the nations haven’t yet come against Israel militarily, but the war of words is heating up on many fronts.

At the UN: a recent United Nations meeting in Support of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process was convened in Brussels, June 28 and 29. The theme of the meeting was: “The role of Europe in advancing Palestinian statehood and achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians”. Sounds positive, doesn’t it? Apparently it was anything but. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for international relations, whose organization was the only Jewish NGO to attend the meeting came out of it horrified! He wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying that the meeting’s title “was nothing but a political euphemism to campaign for the 27 states of the European Union – and the European institutions themselves – to endorse the September UN General Assembly vote on a Palestinian unilateral declaration of independence.”

In addition Samuels reported that campaigns “resonant of a third intifada” were discussed, including calls for mass demonstrations beginning in July in Israel, Europe and North America under the title United for Palestine Independence.

The animus and rancor toward Israel was so intense that he spoke of “veiled threats” made by delegates, quoting some as saying that “this mother of all conflicts can bring violence to all the nations of the world”.

The Gaza Flotilla: preparations are moving forward for another provocative attempt to break Israel’s legitimate blockade of Gaza. This year’s flotilla contains the first ship from America named, The Audacity of Hope. The endeavor was endorsed by President Obama’s good friend, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi. Khalidi, who helped raise $370,000 for the effort, has called Israel a “racist” state with an “apartheid” system. Two participants on this adventure cruise to Gaza are Code Pink founders, Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, both of whom have close ties to the Obama administration.

U.S. Policy: Will the United States be one of those countries that come against Israel in the time of Joel’s prophecy? Up until recently it would be hard to imagine such a thing. But whether through insanity, naivete or malice, the Obama Administration has just established a policy of formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood. The agenda of our new negotiating partner? Islamicizing societies, ultimately establishing a global caliphate, destroying Israel and incrementally expanding sharia throughout the West. As Andrew McCarthy, author of the book, The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America, said, “don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

We’re being warned and it’s not enough to wring our hands and groan, “Oy vey!” Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Do not allow evil to triumph. Do not sit by and do nothing.